Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus which prints images on a plurality of sheets and, more particularly, a printing apparatus which executes a maintenance operation between the completion of printing on a preceding sheet and the start of printing on a succeeding sheet.
Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-241261 describes an inkjet printing apparatus which executes preliminary discharge immediately before the start of printing each time images are printed on a plurality of sheets.
The apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-241261, however, executes preliminary discharge by moving a printhead to a preliminary discharge acceptable cap, resulting in moving the printhead to execute preliminary discharge each time the images are printed on the plurality of sheets. This poses a technical problem that a time required to complete printing the images on the plurality of sheets prolongs.
The main purpose of executing preliminary discharge immediately before the start of printing is to prevent a discharge failure that may occur due to the fact that ink discharge by a printing operation is not performed while discharging the preceding sheet and feeding the succeeding sheet. Therefore, if it is considered that a time required to discharge the preceding sheet and feed the succeeding sheet is short, and no discharge failure occurs even if ink discharge is not performed during that time, no problem is posed even if preliminary discharge is not executed immediately before the start of printing.